"For many amputees the reference point is their healthy arm or leg so prosthetics seem slow and cumbersome in comparison.

"Now, for the first time in a century, we have developed an 'intuitive' hand that can react without thinking."

The team, whose work is reported in the Journal of Neural Engineering, programmed the hand to react within milliseconds and perform four different "grasps" suitable for picking up a cup, holding a TV controller, and gripping objects with a thumb and two fingers or a pinched thumb and first finger.